West suburban vegans stir climate change pot

Confetti-colored salads, aromatic rice, pastas and glistening mock meatballs were lifted with serving spoons from crockpots onto sturdy plastic dinnerware. Musical chatter scored the doings of February’s West Suburbs Vegan Potluck at Base Camp Coffee & Provisions. The java den is an adjunct of Unmapped Brewing Company’s taproom in Minnetonka. Google Maps marks Unmapped on Excelsior Boulevard at Eden Prairie Road, in the Glen Lake area.

Cheery moms, dads and children toned down some as they settled into eating homemade plant-based entrees, side dishes and desserts.

The informal gathering was organized by Eden Prairie’s Nicola Philpott. Her husband, Mark Cannon, and their teenage sons sat together while she scurried about greeting arrivals and arranging their creations on serving tables. Handwritten notes identified each dish: hummus, ratatouille, creamy vegan chocolate pie, carrot cupcakes, blueberry pie, and Nicola’s navy bean and potato stew.

With encouragement from the citizen group Compassionate Action for Animals (CAA), and the hospitality of Unmapped’s co-founder Jade Park and taproom manager Jason Blaeser, Philpott began staging the potlucks a year ago.

Philpott has followed a vegan diet for eight years. The former biochemical and molecular scientist has lectured at University College London and the University of Minnesota. She also co-leads the West Suburbs chapter of Citizens’ Climate Lobby (CCL), which meets at Immanuel Lutheran Church.

“Originally, I went vegetarian for climate reasons and concern for my children and then very quickly learned about the ethical issues (of industrialized meat, dairy and egg production) and became vegan.”

Vegans and vegetarians avoid meat. The latter have little problem with, say, huevos rancheros or cottage cheese. Vegans avoid meat and animal byproducts of any kind. But the two groups are allies of a sort. They speak enthusiastically of plant-based diets, nutrition and taste.

It gets complicated when science links meat production to global warming – when America’s dominant food preferences are factored into climate change equations. It gets politically edgy in a state where most grain crops are grown to feed dairy cows, beef cattle, hogs, chickens and turkeys. That’s a lot of manure methane.

Minnesota livestock is raised mostly in large confinement sheds and feedlots. We hear about containment farming when agricultural giants like Cargill, pork and beef councils, politicians, epidemiologists and economists show up in the news during swine flu, bird flu or tariff crises.

One of Nicola Philpott’s colleagues, Anna Larsson, distills oceans of scientific climate data for presentations she gives around the state. Larsson, also a vegan, spoke to Philpott’s Citizens’ Climate Lobby group in February. The corporate and financial strategist highlights an alarming projection reported by Science magazine in November 2020.

The alert, co-authored by eight scientists, including five from the University of Minnesota, warned that even if fossil fuel emissions (cars, trucks, vans etc.) were eliminated immediately, carbon emissions from our global food system alone would make it impossible to reduce global mean temperatures to their pre-industrial levels. It would also make it difficult to achieve the 2 degrees Celsius set by the Paris Agreement in 2015.  

Nine years later, NOAA scientists announced that 2024 was the warmest year recorded on Earth since 1850.  

Larsson asked the CCL gathering to consider the following:

• 96% of the Earth’s mammalian biomass is human and livestock.

• 80% of the world’s agricultural land is used to support meat and dairy production.

• Less than 10% of the grains grown in the United States are produced or processed for direct human consumption.

• 72% of Brazil’s deforestation is driven by cattle ranching.

• 96% of Minnesota’s farming counties have nitrogen runoff above recommended levels. Nitrogen pollution caused by livestock manure and fertilizer impairs waterways, including the Minnesota River, which forms Eden Prairie’s southern boundary.

Larsson and Philpott are realists. Both have teenage kids. Both have hopes. They do not expect that the dire numbers and severe weather patterns will, say, spark explosive growth in the vegan food business. They do, however, hope that reducing worldwide meat consumption will make the future more manageable. 

Compassionate Action for Animals Executive Director Laura Matanah agrees. “In terms of what we can do as individuals (about climate change), plant-based eating is something you can do on your own,” she told this reporter during the potluck.

CAA chapters in Duluth, the Twin Cities and Rochester participate in “veg fests” and run recipe clubs, cooking groups and food drops. The Twin Cities chapter also supports an ongoing vegan meal service at Simpson House Shelter in Minneapolis.

And on Tuesday, March 18, at the State Capitol during “Humane Lobby Day,” CAA activists advocated for bills to protect animals from cruelty and for legislation that would provide a plant-based meal option in Minnesota schools.

And back at the potluck

Climate science and food politics were mostly absent from February’s potluck, aside from a few questions asked by this EPLN reporter. Folks from around the Twin Cities came for the flavor and, with due respect to Instagram regulars, actual socializing. A few were preoccupied with swiping their phone screens, but most simply enjoyed the food and serendipity.

For her part, Nicola Philpott had prepared a plant-based Caesar salad, cherry almond cookies, and navy bean/potato stew. In 2018, she shared the recipe with her mother, Cynthia, who was visiting from the United Kingdom. At the time, Nicola, Mark and their two sons were living in Traverse City, Michigan.

“My mom was absolutely adamant that a casserole or stew has to have meat in it for flavor,” said Nicola. (The recipe also includes vegetable broth and oil, onions, garlic, sliced celery, and carrots.) “And so she made and tasted it and loved it. She couldn’t believe there wasn’t meat in it.”

Art on a plate

Vegan potlucks can inspire culinary artistry. Clockwise from top, the above pond sports casual meatless islands of jackfruit biryani, potato-onion pierogies with spinach and onion, veggies with tahini dressing, shepherd’s pie with lentils and peas, fried potato puffs with spicy sauce, and kale salad.

Jasmine 26 Restaurant and Hotpot in Minneapolis offers cook-it-yourself vegetarian and vegan options. This plate of vegan spring egg rolls may be hard to match at a potluck — but photographer Sara Beth Olson suggests it’s possible.

Several Eden Prairie restaurants offer vegan options or dedicated vegan menu sections, including Pizza Lucé, Crave, Crisp & Green, and India Palace.

Potluck regular Nick Burzinski reportedly made this mock cheesecake from a recipe found in “Pie in the Sky,” a vegan recipe book. It combines silken tofu with blended raw cashews to mimic dairy cream cheese. The over-the-top maraschino cherries are understandable, but the secrets to their pillowy cushions – the pie crust and the jumbled landscape of a topping – are only revealed in the book.

With Grubhub, DoorDash and pizza deliveries buzzing around town, Eden Prairians may miss the comforting sounds of kitchen prep work. For your consideration – and as a public service – EPLN presents a minute-long video of Philpott in her kitchen on a mission involving meatless stew.

Editor’s note: Writer Jeff Strate is a founding member of the Eden Prairie Local News (EPLN) board of directors.

• Hundreds of vegan recipe books, blogs and podcasts are just a few clicks away on laptops and phones. The West Suburbs Vegan Potlucks, however, finds high merit in sharing kitchen victories at their community fêtes. One is slated for Thursday, April 3. Contact them via the website or by emailing info@exploreveg.org, the address for their parent organization, Compassionate Action for Animals.

• The West Suburbs Citizens’ Climate Lobby will be at the ECO EXPO at Eden Prairie Center mall on Saturday, April 12. On May 10, the group returns to its regular second-Saturday schedule at Immanuel Lutheran Church. The meeting begins at 10:30 a.m. and is expected to focus on the future of large-scale geothermal power. The West Suburban chapter can be contacted via Instagram’s LinkTree: CCL MN West.